Because of their push for Thunderbolt so heavily. Including USB 3.0 at the same time would do nothing but diminish any reason to go to Thunderbolt. At least in the case of having USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt you have enough differentiation. USB 3 and Thunderbolt, not as much. Sure, theoretical peak is only half of thunderbolt, but that's substantially less difference than than the 20 times slower USB 2.0. And honestly you are probably not going to ever saturate USB 3.0 completely very often anyway.
They had something new so they marketed it to encourage people to buy a new machine. It's pretty typical. I still find it irritating how it uses the same port as an external display.
I have a 15" MBP and an 11" Mac Air. The Air is great for traveling when I need more than an iPad. A 15" Air would be great. But as for a replacement:
1. HDD would probably be a SSD in the Air and capacities are still pretty low. External drives are not a real option if this s to be one's main computer - even with the Cloud.
2. Gigabit ethernet is a must. The Thunderbolt or USB options are poor options if you connect regularly via this method. Not an option if you usually connect wirelessly.
3. Optical drives are definitely on their way out. Apple makes an excellent external USB optical drive. But there is still plenty of optical disks out there, particularly for business applications, and having the built-in drive is a big plus for the users that need it. While optical drives are on their way out, they're not dead just yet.
For me personally, I can do without the optical drive and the gigabit ethernet, but I can't do with a small HDD. Of course, until Apple actually makes the announcement and published the specs, all this is just hot air.
If the 15" Air replaces the Pro there will obviously be a lot of unhappy campers.... but sales will go through the roof.
Hopefully Apple will make moves to fulfill the promise of Thunderbolt in this regard. Most of the issues people have can potentially be solved, and even improved through the use of Thunderbolt.
The Optical is surely a non issue - just get the external one.
Storage is a real issue imo. Hopefully Apple will offer a dual SSD / HD option.
Which is going to give substantially less throughput than a real gigabit ethernet port.
It would probably be a thunderbolt/ethernet port adaptor, which would be fine.
I would like them to try and squeeze a proper ethernot port in, but more than that I would like to see the pros go the same way as the airs, so if it is dropped I can see why.
We've had the 13" MB, MBA. and MBP all at the same time but we're suppose to believe that by introducing a 15" MBA that the 15" MBP would be killed off? That's an excessive leap.
As I understand it, the Air pretty much killed-off the 13" Pro in terms of units.
If a thin 15" is well executed, with pro-performance, SSD and perhaps a sub-miniature ethernet port, then yes. The "vanilla" 15" machine will be end-of-line.
And while there will be a handful of users who will bemoan the passing of the built-in optical drive. I think they'll have to shift to external drives. The optical drive is heading the way of the floppy and the parallel printer port. When it comes to the radical-v-conservative axis, Apple have always preferred to be nearer the radical end.
I'm not. My line of work requires transfer of information between various departments, auditors and 3rd party vendors. We have email caps, so we can't go that way. We don't give out USB drives either. We tried FTP, but some vendors are clueless.
I have a 15" MBP and an 11" Mac Air. The Air is great for traveling when I need more than an iPad. A 15" Air would be great. But as for a replacement:
1. HDD would probably be a SSD in the Air and capacities are still pretty low. External drives are not a real option if this s to be one's main computer - even with the Cloud.
2. Gigabit ethernet is a must. The Thunderbolt or USB options are poor options if you connect regularly via this method. Not an option if you usually connect wirelessly.
3. Optical drives are definitely on their way out. Apple makes an excellent external USB optical drive. But there is still plenty of optical disks out there, particularly for business applications, and having the built-in drive is a big plus for the users that need it. While optical drives are on their way out, they're not dead just yet.
For me personally, I can do without the optical drive and the gigabit ethernet, but I can't do with a small HDD. Of course, until Apple actually makes the announcement and published the specs, all this is just hot air.
If they get rid of the optical disk, there would be plenty of room for a small SSD (perhaps 64 GB) and a 500-1000 GB HDD.
It would probably be a thunderbolt/ethernet port adaptor, which would be fine.
Yes, a ridiculously priced one most likely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjones051073
I would like them to try and squeeze a proper ethernot port in, but more than that I would like to see the pros go the same way as the airs, so if it is dropped I can see why.
They could put one on the Airs if they wanted to. They just don't.
Sure, theoretical peak is only half of thunderbolt...
Come on! You know damn well it's 1/4: 2x10 Gb/s = 20Gb/s v. 5 GB/s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JJJameson
Yes, many people still use optical media for vast amounts of things. The fact that Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, Ritek, etc. are still pumping out 100s of millions of optical discs every year is a sure sign of this.
I'd like to see some stats. To say the least, Verbatim has their hands in flash and Blu-ray, too.
The question isn't whether Verbatim isn't finding a new way to make money its whether in 2012 it makes sense to include an ODD in the next 4 years of the Mac notebooks? Who are using ODDs on a regular basis and for what? On a 13" MBP it uses 25% of the internal space, has moving parts, is slow, and using a lot of power to work.
You also need to ask: "Why hasn't Apple put a Blu-ray drive in the MBP if this tech is so useful, so requested, and so needed?" It's been 2 years since that was first possible in an ultra-slim slot-laoding ODD so what's the hold off?
I think the only answer you can find is the ODD is going bye bye.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JJJameson
They could put one on the Airs if they wanted to. They just don't.
We've had the 13" MB, MBA. and MBP all at the same time but we're suppose to believe that by introducing a 15" MBA that the 15" MBP would be killed off? That's an excessive leap.
Yeah, but the fact that there have been 3 x 13" laptops in the line-up must have irked Apple no end. It would make more sense to have 4 physical models, each separated by capability. You could still have a 15" MBA, and a 15" MBA Pro. Now that the white 13" MB has gone - why have two models? There are three main reasons - Optical Drive, HD and Ports. The first is obvious: loose it. The second will be more problematic in terms of space, so I have no answer, and the third I imagine (hope) will be dealt with through Thunderbolt.
PS: I can't believing I'm seeing posters say a Pro needs an ODD. Really?! It's 2012.
The only times I use an optical drive is when I have to send a huge publishing project to Japan or Europe. Many times those archives are 2-3 GB. I can FedEx them there by the time they could download them, if the download even makes it to the end without disconnecting for some reason.
The other thing we use DVDs for is backing up our accounting data and putting it in the fire safe off site. I don't want that stuff on somebody's computer or in the cloud and DVDs are a lot cheaper and more secure than USB memory sticks.
No, that's baloney. The Air at it's widest has more than enough room to accommodate it. They could stick it on the back where I've seen numerous other laptops put them.
Comments
Because of their push for Thunderbolt so heavily. Including USB 3.0 at the same time would do nothing but diminish any reason to go to Thunderbolt. At least in the case of having USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt you have enough differentiation. USB 3 and Thunderbolt, not as much. Sure, theoretical peak is only half of thunderbolt, but that's substantially less difference than than the 20 times slower USB 2.0. And honestly you are probably not going to ever saturate USB 3.0 completely very often anyway.
They had something new so they marketed it to encourage people to buy a new machine. It's pretty typical. I still find it irritating how it uses the same port as an external display.
1. HDD would probably be a SSD in the Air and capacities are still pretty low. External drives are not a real option if this s to be one's main computer - even with the Cloud.
2. Gigabit ethernet is a must. The Thunderbolt or USB options are poor options if you connect regularly via this method. Not an option if you usually connect wirelessly.
3. Optical drives are definitely on their way out. Apple makes an excellent external USB optical drive. But there is still plenty of optical disks out there, particularly for business applications, and having the built-in drive is a big plus for the users that need it. While optical drives are on their way out, they're not dead just yet.
For me personally, I can do without the optical drive and the gigabit ethernet, but I can't do with a small HDD. Of course, until Apple actually makes the announcement and published the specs, all this is just hot air.
I want a Macbook Pro with a Retina Display!
If the 15" Air replaces the Pro there will obviously be a lot of unhappy campers.... but sales will go through the roof.
Hopefully Apple will make moves to fulfill the promise of Thunderbolt in this regard. Most of the issues people have can potentially be solved, and even improved through the use of Thunderbolt.
The Optical is surely a non issue - just get the external one.
Storage is a real issue imo. Hopefully Apple will offer a dual SSD / HD option.
Which is going to give substantially less throughput than a real gigabit ethernet port.
It would probably be a thunderbolt/ethernet port adaptor, which would be fine.
I would like them to try and squeeze a proper ethernot port in, but more than that I would like to see the pros go the same way as the airs, so if it is dropped I can see why.
We've had the 13" MB, MBA. and MBP all at the same time but we're suppose to believe that by introducing a 15" MBA that the 15" MBP would be killed off? That's an excessive leap.
As I understand it, the Air pretty much killed-off the 13" Pro in terms of units.
If a thin 15" is well executed, with pro-performance, SSD and perhaps a sub-miniature ethernet port, then yes. The "vanilla" 15" machine will be end-of-line.
And while there will be a handful of users who will bemoan the passing of the built-in optical drive. I think they'll have to shift to external drives. The optical drive is heading the way of the floppy and the parallel printer port. When it comes to the radical-v-conservative axis, Apple have always preferred to be nearer the radical end.
C.
I'm not. My line of work requires transfer of information between various departments, auditors and 3rd party vendors. We have email caps, so we can't go that way. We don't give out USB drives either. We tried FTP, but some vendors are clueless.
External optical drive. You're happy. They're happy. We're happy.
Really?
I am over optical media. When I last cleared out my office, I threw out the blank DVDs.
C.
Agreed. Optical media is on its last legs. I would be very suprised it the new pros still had their drives this time around ...
I carried a 17-inch PowerBook a few years back to sixteen cities over a period of a month in Europe, btw. The 17-inchers are not that big to me.
I have a 15" MBP and an 11" Mac Air. The Air is great for traveling when I need more than an iPad. A 15" Air would be great. But as for a replacement:
1. HDD would probably be a SSD in the Air and capacities are still pretty low. External drives are not a real option if this s to be one's main computer - even with the Cloud.
2. Gigabit ethernet is a must. The Thunderbolt or USB options are poor options if you connect regularly via this method. Not an option if you usually connect wirelessly.
3. Optical drives are definitely on their way out. Apple makes an excellent external USB optical drive. But there is still plenty of optical disks out there, particularly for business applications, and having the built-in drive is a big plus for the users that need it. While optical drives are on their way out, they're not dead just yet.
For me personally, I can do without the optical drive and the gigabit ethernet, but I can't do with a small HDD. Of course, until Apple actually makes the announcement and published the specs, all this is just hot air.
If they get rid of the optical disk, there would be plenty of room for a small SSD (perhaps 64 GB) and a 500-1000 GB HDD.
It would probably be a thunderbolt/ethernet port adaptor, which would be fine.
Yes, a ridiculously priced one most likely.
I would like them to try and squeeze a proper ethernot port in, but more than that I would like to see the pros go the same way as the airs, so if it is dropped I can see why.
They could put one on the Airs if they wanted to. They just don't.
I'd rather see the MBA and MBP combined into one all new exciting design, preferably in black rather than silver.
Sure, theoretical peak is only half of thunderbolt...
Come on! You know damn well it's 1/4: 2x10 Gb/s = 20Gb/s v. 5 GB/s.
Yes, many people still use optical media for vast amounts of things. The fact that Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, Ritek, etc. are still pumping out 100s of millions of optical discs every year is a sure sign of this.
I'd like to see some stats. To say the least, Verbatim has their hands in flash and Blu-ray, too.
The question isn't whether Verbatim isn't finding a new way to make money its whether in 2012 it makes sense to include an ODD in the next 4 years of the Mac notebooks? Who are using ODDs on a regular basis and for what? On a 13" MBP it uses 25% of the internal space, has moving parts, is slow, and using a lot of power to work.
You also need to ask: "Why hasn't Apple put a Blu-ray drive in the MBP if this tech is so useful, so requested, and so needed?" It's been 2 years since that was first possible in an ultra-slim slot-laoding ODD so what's the hold off?
I think the only answer you can find is the ODD is going bye bye.
They could put one on the Airs if they wanted to. They just don't.
No they couldn't. It's too thin to use an RJ-45.
We've had the 13" MB, MBA. and MBP all at the same time but we're suppose to believe that by introducing a 15" MBA that the 15" MBP would be killed off? That's an excessive leap.
Yeah, but the fact that there have been 3 x 13" laptops in the line-up must have irked Apple no end. It would make more sense to have 4 physical models, each separated by capability. You could still have a 15" MBA, and a 15" MBA Pro. Now that the white 13" MB has gone - why have two models? There are three main reasons - Optical Drive, HD and Ports. The first is obvious: loose it. The second will be more problematic in terms of space, so I have no answer, and the third I imagine (hope) will be dealt with through Thunderbolt.
Come on! You know damn well it's 1/4: 2x10 Gb/s = 20Gb/s v. 5 GB/s.
So then why does Apple in the mac book pro specs say:
Thunderbolt port (up to 10 Gbps)
PS: I can't believing I'm seeing posters say a Pro needs an ODD. Really?! It's 2012.
The only times I use an optical drive is when I have to send a huge publishing project to Japan or Europe. Many times those archives are 2-3 GB. I can FedEx them there by the time they could download them, if the download even makes it to the end without disconnecting for some reason.
The other thing we use DVDs for is backing up our accounting data and putting it in the fire safe off site. I don't want that stuff on somebody's computer or in the cloud and DVDs are a lot cheaper and more secure than USB memory sticks.
No they couldn't. It's too thin to use an RJ-45.
No, that's baloney. The Air at it's widest has more than enough room to accommodate it. They could stick it on the back where I've seen numerous other laptops put them.
I don't want thinner, I just want lighter, faster with a better screen.
Both MacBook Air 13" and MacBook Pro 15" support 1440 x 900. So the screen of 15" MacBook Air will not be worse.
Why is USB 3.0 highly unlikely? It will be natively supported in Ivy Bridge. I'm expecting Ivy Bridge based macs to include it.
Because it competes with Thunderbolt ? Did a google search on it, and a number of sources are saying apple will add usb 3.0.
We'll have to see, but I sure hope they do